The company said the licensing process involved a review of the system’s design, safety analysis and flight trajectory analysis. Virgin Galactic’s first spaceship broke apart in 2014 during its fourth rocket-powered test flight when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked a key system.

(Mark J. Terrill/AP)

The second version of the company’s SpaceShipTwo was unveiled in February. The first taxi test of the new spacecraft took place on Monday morning at the Mojave California airport.

The taxi test evaluated and calibrated navigation and communications telemetry systems as it was pulled by an off-road vehicle.

(Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic)

Described as ‘the world’s first commercial spaceline’, Virgin Galactic wants to make space more accessible to more people. Who knows, maybe one day taking a spaceship into the atmosphere will be as easy as booking a flight?

//

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